Election Day is less than a month away. Now is the time to become familiar with the many state and local charter amendments on the ballot.

UCF political science Professor Aubrey Jewett said voters need to brush up on all of the amendments and initiatives on the ballot before heading to the polls.

“Read over your sample ballot," Jewett said. "There’s a lot of things on there. The state constitutional amendments and there’s these four Orange County proposed charter amendments, and so you really have to do your homework. You actually have to read through a little bit and read some summaries and think about what you want.”

Here's a look at them.

Amendment A

When citizens want to make a change to the county’s charter, it usually begins with a petition drive and the collection of signatures.

In Orange County, once those signatures are verified there must be at least 45 days between that date and the next election, call it a cooling off period.

If Orange County Amendment A passes, that cooling off period would more than triple… to 150 days.

“150 days is five months, which would make it almost impossible for a citizen’s initiative to make it on the ballot,” said Michelle Levy with the League of Women Voters.

University of Central Florida political science Professor Aubrey Jewett said the signature collection process is a tedious one. Now anyone looking to make a change would be racing against the clock.

“It is going to make it more difficult to get a charter initiative proposed," Jewett said. "You’ve go to go out and collect these signatures and you are going to have about three months less time to do it.”

The professor also believes county commissioners proposed this initiative to, in essence, keep them from being blindsided.

“By doing this about five months ahead of time, it gives you about three or four months to debate and discuss these things so again, voters have to weigh those two things,” Jewett said.

Amendment B

Heading to the voting booth is easy. It’s once you begin to read all of the amendments and legalese that things get confusing.

Amendment B was one of the hot topics at a recent League of Women Voters informational forum. Michelle Levy said it was done in reaction to the controversy over the sick leave citizen initiative.

The Sick Leave amendment was an effort to force local businesses with more than 15 employees to allow their employees to accumulate paid sick time.

Amendment B would seriously limit the ability to regulate employer wages, benefits or hours of work.

 Jewett said many business owners are going to want to see this one pass.

“[They basically] don’t want to have to worry about any specific extra rules and regulations about sick time or extra minimum wages or anything else in Orange County that I don’t have to worry about in any other county,” Jewett said.

 In 2013 Governor Rick Scott signed a law saying counties cannot force businesses to pay their employees sick time. No word on how the local vote will impact the state law.

Amendment C

"The citizen initiative which would change all of the charter officers, that is the mayor and the six commissioners, from nonpartisan to partisan," Levy said.

Right now the political affiliation of the county commission is not a partisan position, nor is the mayor, which means no partisan primaries and no partisan campaigning.

Jewett said voters need to really think hard on Amendment C.

"There's pros and cons to this," Jewett said. “Some people would say a nonpartisan local office is really a better choice because at the local level the partisanship we see at the state and national level really should not enter in to it. There is an old saying, "there's no Republican or Democratic way to pave a street."

Leaving the offices nonpartisan, lets more voters voices be heard.

“It allows more people to participate in the process," Jewett said. Because basically everyone that lives in Orange County that is registered can participate even if they are not registered with one of the main political parties."

And then there's the mayor, who is now running for another term uncontested. If this Charter initiative passes, the Orange County Mayor’s election would coincide with Presidential elections. Meaning Teresa Jacobs would need to run again in 2016.

Amendment D

Amendment D would add term limits to many local elected offices and make a number of positions nonpartisan.

These positions including tax collector, property appraiser and sheriff.

“What the Orange County commission is saying is these are really administrative offices," Jewett said. "They are not partisan offices, meaning again, there shouldn’t be Democrat versus Republican ideas. At least not that much. It should be more about can we have a property appraiser that can fairly appraise property. Let’s have a tax collector that is good at getting the taxes in and lets have a sheriff that is good at running the sheriff’s department and the jail."

If the positions are changed to nonpartisan, more voters will have a voice in future changes.

“Constitutional offices really should be nonpartisan because they are primarily administrative function and it really should be who is the best at doing the job, not what their party label is," Jewett said. "It would also certainly open it up to more voters so that people who are not registered to either party, and that is a huge number in Orange county, would be able to participate.”